Page 6

Beth

S adly, my peace was short-lived. The sun hadn’t even started to rise by the time my brothers were clattering around, shouting at one another as they started their day.

Usually, they liked to sleep until early afternoon, but as two of my brothers somehow had jobs now, between the five males in the house, it was always noisy.

Grabbing my phone, I shot off a quick message to my best friend. She had two babies and was usually up early.

Beth:

I’ve been home less than twenty-four hours, and I already want to run away.

She answered almost immediately.

Kennedy:

Then come home! I haven’t seen you in a while. Char and Samuel miss their auntie Bethy!

Even though Kennedy’s children weren’t biologically related to me, I had the position of honorary aunt, and I enjoyed it greatly.

I had made several jokes that my position would become more important when they became teenagers and wanted to start dating.

Well, for Charlotte, at least. They had four fathers who were very overprotective, and I could just imagine how they were going to react when a boy looked her way.

The door to my room opened, and Jake came barging in without knocking. Glowering at him, I put my phone down. “Dude, I could have been getting changed!”

He shrugged. “But you weren’t. Today, when you’re doing shit for the dads, can you bake some cookies for the guys at my work? I told them I would bring some in.”

“You didn’t think to ask first?”

“It was a last-minute thing. Come on. We know you can bake cookies in your sleep.”

That didn’t mean I wanted to. I could have told him no, but then I would have to deal with his constant whining. So, taking a deep breath, I simply nodded and passed on a fake smile. “Sure.”

“Good!” He grinned. “You should be getting up, anyway. You’re being a lazy butt staying in bed this late,” he said as he sauntered out of the room.

My hands shook with the urge to throw something at the back of his head. He had been fired from several jobs for sleeping in, so he was being a hypocritical ass.

There was never a chance I would actually be able to relax while I was at my family’s home. I had stopped thinking that was a possibility long ago. From the moment I walked through the door, there was always a pile of work waiting for me.

My pa was sitting at the kitchen table as I padded downstairs.

“Here’s the lazy college student!” He smiled warmly.

He probably thought he was making a hilarious joke. I simply gave him a tight smile and went over to the fridge. I wasn’t sure when the disconnect happened, but it was like I was from a different universe than my family.

“Where’s the milk?” I asked. “There were two bottles yesterday before dinner.”

“Hayden took them to his place. He said he was out,” he said, turning the page of his newspaper.

“Well, if you guys want me to make mac and cheese for dinner, I’m going to need milk,” I pointed out.

My pa frowned. “You can go get some more, can’t you? Hayden’s been busy working so much and trying to keep his place in order that it’s unfair to make him go to the store when we had it here.”

“Can no one else go and get milk?”

He shook his head. “Your brothers are at work, and I’m about to head to the office.”

“What about Danny? He’s not working right now, so what is he doing all day?”

“He’s searching for jobs. It’s not his fault every employer in town is judgmental.”

“Surely he can take two minutes between his job hunting to grab some milk if he wants dinner made for him?”

Pa grimaced. “He doesn’t have his license right now, so he can’t drive.”

I swiveled around to look at my father incredulously. What had my idiot brother done this time to warrant his license being suspended?

“Don’t give me that look, Bethany. Your brothers have been having a hard time. They really struggled losing your mother—we all did.”

Yet, somehow, I was expected to do everything on my own and they were handed everything on a silver platter.

“Pa…”

He got up, walked over to me, and pulled me into a hug. “I know they get on your nerves, but they are your brothers, and we need to support them. If your mother was here, she would know what to do.”

The hug was familiar and warm, and for a moment, I leaned into it. “I’ll go get milk,” I muttered after a moment, deflating.

My pa beamed down at me. “Thank you. Now I must go to work, but I’ll see you for dinner!”

Gathering his things, he headed out the door, and I heard his truck pulling out of the driveway a moment later.

The house was quiet and empty.

Honestly, I kind of liked it that way.

My phone dinged, and I checked the screen, thinking it could be another text from Pack Noble.

Not that they had any reason to be texting me again, but still, my heart jumped at the possibility.

Talking with them had been oddly easy. Over the phone, I wasn’t distracted by how annoyingly good-looking they were.

Liam:

Hey, do you want to go to dinner on Friday?

I frowned at the screen. Liam was an alpha I had been briefly introduced to last month. A girl from my economics class had insisted that he would be a good potential match for me, so I had agreed to take his number.

Normally, I would turn him down and move on. I had no interest in dating at the moment, but after my brother’s words insinuating that I was a whore…well, I wanted to be petty. Not that I would ever tell my family that I usually dated betas.

That would lead to a lot of questions, and there was no way I was going to admit to them that I didn’t want to end up with an alpha because I saw how poorly they treated the women in their lives.

Taking a deep breath, I stashed my phone away and turned back to the food. Soon enough, I would be back home, where I only had to care for myself.

And I officially had a date.